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 Yeah... it doesn't really get much tamer than this.
Bara is a genre of manga and art made by gay and bisexual men, for gay and bisexual men. In Japan it's more commonly known as "gei comi", "gei manga", or "menslove". Bara generally features mature and realistic(ish) relationships, rather than overly melodramatic soap opera plots. Bara plots tend to be simple, short, and to cut to the chase, If You Know What I Mean. Since All Men Are Perverts (doubly so if they're gay) plays it hard here, bara is always very explicit, to the point that "Bara Hentai" is a redundant phrase. Another important characteristic is that bara emphasizes manly and muscular (sometimes hairy) characters with varying degrees of body fat, as opposed to the androgynous and effeminate boys commonly found in Boys' Love Genre. It also, usually, tends to avert, subvert or invert the Uke and Seme dynamics eg. most of the time the Seme is someone younger and much "cuter" looking.
Bara evolved from illustrations and manga in gay men's general-interest (and/or pornographic) magazines, which partially accounts for the differences in style and tone, as well as the generally short story length. It is generally considered a separate genre from yaoi; many Japanese bara artists would be offended if their works were called yaoi. The term was popularized by a Japanese gay magazine called Barazoku (lit. rose tribe), the same magazine that coined the term Yurizoku (lit. lily tribe) that later became Yuri Genre. See the Wikipedia on Bara.
Although gay men's general-interest magazines have published occasional manga stories since the 1970s, the first all-manga gay magazines to become commercially successful date only from the early 2000s. The two major commercial publishers at the moment are Furukawa Shobu (a publisher of gay men's magazines) and Oakla Shuppan (a yaoi publisher that also has some bara manga magazines). Kinniku Otoko (literally "Muscle Man") is one of the manga magazines that focuses on this genre. Gengoroh Tagame is an example of a well-known artist.
Other popular and well-known artists include Gamma, Jin, Kazuma, Manya, Takeshi Matsu, Inaki Matsumoto, Ron-9 (who drew the top picture), Takakunozomu, and Matsuzaki Tsukasa. Takaki Kyou has also got a lot of popularity with the kemono bara crowd. Outside of Japan, there is also Braford (Argentina), Captain Ger Bear (Canada), Forge the Wielder (USA), Furry Revolution (Italy), Galen (Spain), Grisser (Thailand), Gez Tank Skunkrat (Mexico), Ralf König (Germany), Kupopo (USA), Kyuuhari (Malaysia), Rrowdy Beast (USA), and Tom Of Finland (Finland).
Unlike Yaoi Fangirls, Bara fans don't worry about shipping and are not so vocal about it either. Monogamy and chastity are usually total non-issues in bara, where Everybody Has Lots of Sex as easily as they live and breathe, as if it were a hello or a handshake.
Fan Yay plays an important role on the bara fandom, since official works were quite rare until recently, so fans have to rely on Doujinshi, Fan Art and Fan Fiction.
Tropes commonly associated with bara are:
ExamplesAnime and Manga
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alternative title(s): Barazoku; Gachimuchi; Bara
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